George Q. Daley is internationally recognized as an expert in stem cell research and for his work in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of the blood caused by genetically defective stem cells. His current research is aimed at translating insights in stem cell biology into cellular therapies for degenerative, malignant and genetic diseases. Through an NIH award, he is investigating whether stem cells reprogrammed from adult stem cells (iPS cells) are equivalent to those derived from human embryos, one of the field’s most pressing questions.

Dr. Daley’s laboratory reported the first successful application of somatic cell nuclear transfer of embryonic stem cells to treat genetic disease in a mouse model of immune deficiency (together with Rudolf Jaenisch) and the first creation of functional sperm cells from embryonic stem cells, work that was cited by Science magazine as a “Top Ten” breakthrough for 2003. More recently, Science magazine cited Dr. Daley’s creation of disease-specific stem cells from patients in its 2008 Breakthrough of the Year issue.

Dr. Daley received a PhD in Biology from MIT, working with Nobelist Dr. David Baltimore. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School, where he was only the twelfth individual in the school’s history to be awarded the degree summa cum laude. He has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and holds awards from the Harvard Medical School, the National Institutes of Health, the New England Cancer Society, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the Edward Mallinckrodt, Jr. Foundation, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America recognizing his contributions to medical research. He was an inaugural winner of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and is the Past President of the International Society of Stem Cell Research. Dr. Daley is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Spotlight

Blood diseases: The First Frontier

Hematologist George Q. Daley, MD, PhD, Director of Stem Cell Transplantation
Program, has seen children with blood diseases die, often because they aren’t candidates for bone marrow transplants, currently the best tool for treating many of these diseases. Daley hopes to employ pluripotent stem cells to create safer, genetically matched bone-marrow transplants for patients. Read more.